World

Photos capture inequality and change in San Francisco Bay Area

Trying to capture the essence of a place in just a few images is a difficult task. Sometimes it takes several different perspectives to truly show what makes a city's heart beat.

The San Francisco Bay Area is one of the most rapidly changing regions of the United States and it is documented by 14 different photographers in a new exhibition called Status Update. The photographs are done by both local and outside artists, but all of the photos look closely at the daily lives of ordinary people in the area.

"Change is fluid," says Rian Dundon, one of the exhibition's curators. "And the Bay Area is a porous place - these things spill out. We want to see how different threads can connect across such a variegated region."

Though the Bay Area is booming with tech innovation and young companies, a large percentage of the region lives in poverty. The organizers of the project hope that these photos can ignite the conversation and change the area needs.

Status Update opens November 13th at SOMArts in San Francisco.

Information provided by Catchlight press releases.

Status Update project

Oakland. Calif., 2013.

From an ongoing project following Shannon Fulcher.

Image: Sam Wolson

Former foster youth Sade Daniels, photographed at age 26, keeps the number 255 written on the bathroom mirror in her Hayward, Calif., apartment as a daily reminder of the weight problems she has battled since the time she was prescribed psychotropic medications as a teen growing up in foster care group homes.

“When I look back as an adult at who I was when I was initially diagnosed and given the medication — I needed love,” Daniels said. “Nobody really sees that hurt girl, or the one who truly just wants her mom to get her act together and to get off drugs, or who wants a family, something stable. The system relies heavily on medication to do a job that parents are supposed to do.” She was photographed in her home in June 2014.

From the series, Drugging Our Kids.

Image: Dai Sugano

Sonoma, Calif. Winter 2012.

From the series, West County.

Image: Talia Herman

Chanslor and 4th Street. Richmond, 2009.

From the series, There Is Nothing Beautiful Around Here.

Image: Paccarik Orue

Students crowd the bleachers during an academic assembly at W.C. Overfelt High School in East San Jose, Calif., March 2015.

From the series, Common Core in Silicon Valley.

Image: Rian Dundon

In 2009, at the height of the recession and housing crisis, 68-year-old Ethel Gist lost her home in a gated Brentwood retirement community to foreclosure. Now she lives with her daughter and grandsons in an Antioch rental. She spends her days answering the phones and greeting visitors in a small office at the Antioch Church Family, where she is a congregant and part-time receptionist. Antioch, Calif. 2011.

From the series, Faces of Foreclosure.

Image: Joseph Rodriguez

A participant in a hackathon organized by the company Shirts.io takes a nap at her computer in the middle of the night at Citizen Space in San Francisco, Calif., on Saturday, Aug. 16, 2014.

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